Dr. Peter Meinke

Born 1932 in Flatbush (Brooklyn), New York, Meinke has been a writer and professor at Eckerd College since 1966. He previously lived in Brooklyn and New Jersey and studied at universities in both Michigan and Minnesota. An acclaimed writer, he won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction in 1986 for his story, “The Piano Tuner.” Recently, Dr. Meinke has written children’s books alongside his wife, artist Jeanne. In May of 2009, Meinke was appointed “the first ever Poet Laureate of St. Petersburg, Florida,” according to his self-titled website. As of 2016, he still has two years remaining in his tenure as the Poet Laureate of Florida.